Dental Implants – Mansfield, TX
Long-Lasting & Beautiful
Tooth Replacement
Replacing your missing teeth can have lasting benefits for not only your dental health, but your overall health, appearance, and confidence as well. So, why not choose the restoration that dentists around the world agree is the best? With dental implants in Mansfield, TX, Dr. Rudd can practically turn back the clock for any degree of tooth loss, enabling someone to speak, eat, and smile just like they used to before dental decay or damage took its toll. To learn more about this state-of-the-art treatment and how you can get everything you need right here in Mansfield, contact us today.
Why Choose Broad Park Family Dentistry for Dental Implants?
- Entire Procedure Completed Under One Roof
- Sedation Guarantees a Comfortable Experience
- Able to Restore Any Number of Teeth for Life
What is a Dental Implant?
A dental implant is actually a prosthetic tooth root made of titanium. One is placed where a natural tooth used to reside, and there, it firmly bonds with the surrounding jawbone just like a real root thanks to a process called osseointegration. Then, it can be attached to a crown, bridge, or denture that restores the visible portion of the tooth, essentially bringing back every part of someone’s dental structure.
The 4-Step Dental Implant Process
Compared to other restorations, dental implants take longer to get. In fact, doing so involves a unique, multi-step process that spans several months. Still, you can trust that these prosthetics’ long-term benefits are worth the time and effort. At Broad Park Family Dentistry, we proudly place implants in-office instead of through an outside specialist. That way, our experienced dentists can ensure excellent and effective care. As for how dental implants work in Mansfield, there are four steps to the procedure: consultation, surgery, osseointegration, and delivery of final restoration.
Initial Dental Implant Consultation
When getting implants, you’ll first attend a dental consultation. This visit lets Drs. Rudd and Howze learn your smile goals, medical history, oral health, etc.
The main purpose of the consult is to confirm your implant candidacy. Depending on its results, the dentists will decide whether the prosthetics could work for you. If you don’t qualify, they could help you with preliminary work like gum disease therapy, tooth extractions, or bone grafting.
Should we give you the go-ahead, the consult will also explain the details of implant placement. Namely, we’ll walk you through its various aspects – the timeline, the cost, and more.
Dental Implant Surgery
As mentioned before, our dentists personally perform implant placement. You thus won’t need to see an expensive (or distant) outside specialist, saving time and money. Plus, our office will have ready access to your dental records for treatment.
The surgery itself will involve the following:
- Mouth Numbing – Using a local anesthetic, our dental team will numb your mouth before treatment. This approach ensures you won’t feel pain during the implant placement.
- Minor Incision – Once you’re fully numbed, the dentists will make a small incision in your gums. The resulting opening creates space for your new implant.
- Placement of Implant(s) – The dentists will place the implant in your jaw with precise tools.
- Gum Closure – After placing the implant, the dentists will close the previously-made incision. They’ll then put a cap over the post.
Dental Implant Osseointegration & Abutment
Implant treatment doesn’t end with placement surgery. In reality, your new teeth still need time to fuse with your jaw. That fusion – called osseointegration – will take 4-6 months and keep the implants in place. Needless to say, you mustn’t do anything to upset the process.
When the implants have adequately fused, you’ll return to our office for abutments – metal connectors that secure crowns. You’ll then heal for a few weeks as your final restorations are crafted from dental impressions.
Delivery of Dental Implant Restoration(s)
The last step of getting implants is receiving your final restoration. Depending on how many teeth were missing, this item might be a crown, bridge, or denture.
Ultimately, placing this last restoration is straightforward. After cementing it in place, the dentists will make final adjustments to ensure your bite is comfy. From there, your smile will be whole and ready to go out into the world!
Benefits of Dental Implants
While regular bridges and dentures just sit on top of the gumline, dental implants are held within thick jawbone just like natural teeth. This is why there are multiple benefits of dental implants in Mansfield that you just can’t get with traditional tooth replacements. In short, dental implants are the closest thing to the pearly whites that you grew yourself! Here are just a few of the many ways in which this solution can transform not just your smile, but your quality of life.
Day-to-Day Benefits
- Enhanced chewing power – Denture wearers often feel limited in terms of which foods they can eat. Without the root structure, traditional replacement teeth just don’t pack the same punch when it comes to biting and chewing. That’s what makes dental implants unique; they replicate the tooth roots and enable you to dig into your favorite chewy and crunchy foods.
- No slippage – Another drawback of regular dentures is their tendency to slip around, especially if they don’t fit properly. You won’t have to worry about this with dental implants. Since the posts are embedded within your jaw, they’ll always stay firmly in place.
- Easy maintenance – Your daily care routine with dental implants should feel virtually the same as it did for your natural teeth. Instead of having to take your prosthetic out at night to clean it, normal brushing and flossing should be more than enough.
Health Benefits
- Lower your risk of gum disease – Because dental implants in Mansfield are so easy to care for, they lower your chance of bacteria accumulating in your mouth and causing gum disease. This benefits your overall health because gum disease has been linked to a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and multiple general health conditions. Thus, dental implants boost the health of your whole body, not just your mouth.
- Preserve remaining natural teeth – After a tooth has been removed, the adjacent teeth begin to gradually drift, leading to severe alignment issues over time. Even if you fill the gap with a dental bridge, some healthy enamel from your natural teeth will have to be removed to support the prosthetic. Not only do dental implants keep your remaining teeth in their proper places, but they don’t require that any of your natural tooth structure be altered.
- Maintain a balanced diet – It’s no secret that your body needs a variety of nutrients to stay in great shape. Missing teeth or unreliable dentures often force patients to stick to a soft food diet, which may contribute to nutritional deficiencies. Since dental implants bring back your chewing force, you should be able to get all of the vitamins and minerals you need to feel good about your health.
Long-Term Benefits
- Lasting results – As long as you keep up with your daily oral hygiene and six-month checkups with an implant dentist in Mansfield, your new teeth should easily last for 30 years or longer.
- Monetary value – Although they have a higher initial price, dental implants can actually be more cost-effective in the long run. That’s because you should only have to pay for them once, while bridges and dentures will need to be repaired and replaced every few years, compounding on their original lower costs.
- Younger appearance – It’s common for the jawbone to shrink after tooth loss, but dental implants actually stop and even reverse this process by functioning like real tooth roots. This prevents not only future tooth loss, but also helps you avoid the sunken-in, aged appearance that often comes after some time has passed without teeth.
Are Dental Implants Right for You?
If you are missing any number of teeth, have decent oral health, and your jaw is strong enough to support implant roots, then you are definitely a good candidate for dental implants. Our team can help you become one if any of these requirements are missing, and then you can decide which version of the treatment best suits your needs.
Missing Single Tooth
A crown supported by a single dental implant can be placed between two healthy teeth without disturbing them at all. It will be colored to match the rest of the smile and shaped to fit seamlessly within the bite so a patient quickly forgets that it’s not real.
Missing Multiple Teeth
Several teeth can be brought back at once with just one or two implants that connect a bridge or partial denture to the jawbone. Implants give these prosthetics much more stability and durability compared to their removable counterparts.
Missing All Teeth
Are you missing all of your teeth, or are you ready to upgrade your denture so it stops slipping out of place? Just four to six implants can be used to support a full denture that restores an entire row of teeth and gives someone almost all of their biting force back.
Understanding the Cost of Dental Implants
Because of the materials and techniques involved in dental implants, they have been shown to last decades longer than the alternatives, making them one of the best investments in all of dentistry. It should be noted, however, that the initial cost of dental implants in Mansfield tends to be more than that of traditional bridges and dentures, and it can vary widely based on a patient's specific needs. Regardless, most implant patients save thousands as the years go by because they don’t have to replace their prosthetics every 5 – 10 years like with normal restorations. Plus, our team offers provisions that may make it easier than you expect to fit implants into your budget.
Preliminary Treatments & Dental Implant Surgery
It’s common for patients to require some preliminary treatments, such as tooth extractions or bone grafting, before they qualify for dental implants in Mansfield. Each of these services incurs its own fee. The dental implant placement surgery has a separate cost, which is determined by various factors, including the number of implants being placed and the type of sedation used. Since we perform the surgery right here in our office, you won’t have to worry about dealing with another practice’s pricing and payment policies.
The Parts of Your Dental Implant
There are different types of dental implant treatment, from single-tooth replacement to full mouth reconstruction. The type of restorations we use, as well as our treatment techniques, will have a bearing on your final price. Keep in mind as well that dental implants can come from various manufacturers and brands. While there are some discount brands out there, our practice prefers to work with only the highest quality materials.
How Dental Implants Can Save You Money
While the lower upfront cost of dentures and bridges might tempt you, it’s important to think about long-term value. Traditional restorations typically need to be replaced every 5 – 10 years — they can get expensive after a while! Dental implants, on the other hand, are usually a one-time solution that may cost just a few dollars per day throughout a lifetime. Plus, they offer non-monetary benefits, such as remarkable stability and bone preservation, that are truly priceless.
Does My Dental Insurance Cover Dental Implants?
More and more dental insurance companies are offering coverage for dental implants. However, many still do not. Our team will help you navigate your policy and figure out how it applies to your treatment. We have years of experience in navigating the complexities of dental benefits. Even if your plan does not cover the implants themselves, it is likely to cover other parts of your dental implant journey, such as your final restorations or preliminary services.
Making Dental Implants Affordable
In addition to helping you use your dental insurance as fully as possible, we are also pleased to accept payment from CareCredit. CareCredit is a third-party lender that offers low-interest and no-interest payment plans for dental and medical services. Most patients qualify for it! We can help you through the application process and strive to answer all of your questions. As your implant dentist in Mansfield, we want to help you afford your new smile!
Dental implant FAQs
Are you still on the fence about replacing your lost teeth with dental implants in Mansfield? There’s a reason that this modern solution has become the gold standard for tooth replacement, and that’s because of the countless benefits that implants offer! To help you get a better idea of what to expect from the process, we’ve answered some frequently asked questions about dental implants below.
Does Dental Insurance Cover Dental Implants?
It depends on the details of your specific policy, but in general, dental insurance does not cover the cost of dental implants. However, they may foot some of the bill for other parts of the treatment, such as your crown, bridge, or denture. Our team members can gladly look over your plan and determine how much coverage you qualify for.
To help you fit the cost of your new smile into your budget, we also accept third-party financing with CareCredit. This company offers several kinds of plan that allow you to split up the cost of your treatment into smaller, budget-friendly payments. For qualified patients, these plans may have low or even zero interest!
Why Is It Important to Replace Missing Teeth?
Even missing a single tooth can cause your jawbone to miss out on vital stimulation from the roots of that tooth. Without that stimulation, that area of the jawbone starts to shrink. Eventually, it loses the ability to adequately support your facial structures, leading to drooping and wrinkling that ages you prematurely. Dental implants are the only tooth loss solution that keeps your jawbone strong and allows you to look young for years to come.
Also, missing teeth leave gaps in your grin that can make eating difficult and cause self-esteem issues. Your remaining teeth may also shift to try and fill in the space, causing your smile to become crooked. Implant-retained teeth let you eat what you want, smile confidently, and keep the rest of your natural teeth firmly in place.
Does It Hurt to Get Dental Implants?
Most patients report that dental implant surgery is actually more comfortable than getting a tooth extracted. Before we begin the procedure, your dentist in Mansfield will make sure you’re comfortable. We can even administer sedation if need be. Plus, we’ll numb your mouth with a local anesthetic. You shouldn’t feel pain during the dental implant surgery.
However, your mouth may feel sore for a few days following your procedure. Take any prescribed or over-the-counter pain medications as directed to minimize your discomfort. Holding a cold compress to your cheek for 10 minutes at a time can also help.
Maintaining & Caring For Your Dental Implants
Dental implant care in Mansfield is essential if you want your new smile to last as long as possible. When these permanent prosthetics are put into place by your dentist, you can expect to receive detailed instructions as to how you should take care of them moving forward. Yes, regular visits to our dental office are necessary but so are good at-home oral habits, giving up bad habits, maintaining a healthy diet, and using the right method of mouth protection.
Making Oral Hygiene a Priority
Do you regularly brush and floss your teeth? With dental implants in Mansfield, the process is much easier than if you were equipped with dentures or dental bridges. Food and bacteria can become easily trapped underneath these prosthetics; however, because of the way implants are made, it is much easier to clean your teeth, reducing your risk for gum disease, which can ultimately cause dental implant failure.
Eating a Healthy Diet
Healthy foods like lean proteins, leafy greens, fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy are vital components of any diet. Too much sugar and starch can lead to tooth decay and gum disease if you’re not careful. While dental implants cannot decay, they can be affected by gum disease, which is detrimental to the success of permanent prosthetics. By incorporating healthier options into your daily diet, you can feel confident in the future of your smile.
Breaking Bad Habits
Nail-biting, smoking, eating ice, chewing on inanimate objects, and teeth grinding are all hard habits to break. However, by choosing to be mindful of your lifestyle choices, you can better protect your teeth from potential damage. Yes, dental implants are strong and durable, but they’re not indestructible. Make sure you work to give up any unhealthy habits that might hinder the lifespan of your new smile.
Protecting Your Dental Implants
Much in the same way you should quit smoking or switch to healthier habits, you should also make sure you are equipped with the right form of mouth protection. A customized mouthguard can make it possible to play your favorite sport or go to bed each night better protecting your smile. A hard hit, sudden fall, or grinding of your teeth can not only cause your tooth enamel to wear down but also cracks, chips, and breaks can form if you’re not careful. Investing in a quality mouthguard will help you to safeguard your smile for years to come.
Scheduling Regular Dental Checkups
With or without dental implants, it is important that you visit your implant dentist in Mansfield every six months. Regular dental checkups and cleanings will allow our team to check for signs of gum disease or decay, both of which can cause significant problems with your real and artificial teeth. We’ll also make sure you are not developing gum disease, which can lead to bone loss and put you at risk for dental implant failure. It is these visits that make it possible for your smile to carry on comfortably year after year.
